[Guide] Transfer apps between Android devices via Bluetooth

It seems like these days our mobile devices are mostly Internet-driven, but they can communicate with each other using other technologies. Knowing how to transfer apps between Android devices via Bluetooth can be useful in those situations when there are no available Wi-Fi or mobile data connections.

You can rely on Bluetooth to transfer apps between two phones even if you’re in the middle of nowhere.

How to transfer apps between Android devices via Bluetooth

While Bluetooth lets you transfer files between two mobile devices, if you’re looking to transfer installed apps, you will also need a tool called APK Extractor. This app is able to convert any app you have installed on your device into a compressed APK file which can be transferred to another device, re-extracted and installed.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed APK Extractor, launch the app and you will see all your installed apps listed.

Find the app you want to send to the other device and long-tap it. This will display checkboxes, as well as share and download options at the top of the screen.

Now, you can select one or more apps that should be compressed and shared via Bluetooth. After you selected all the apps you want to compress, tap on the “Share” icon and select “Bluetooth”.

Also, the other Android device should be discoverable and have Bluetooth enabled for this to work.

On the “Choose Bluetooth device” screen, you should see the receiving device on the list. Tap it and it should get a notification where its owner can accept the app(s) you want to transfer.

When the transfer is complete, you can access the APK by tapping on the related notification. Even if you closed it by accident you can use the file manager to browse to the “Download” or “ExtractedAPKs” folder where the transferred app should be located.

After you locate the APK, tap it and select “Install”. Keep in mind that you’ll need to have “Unknown sources” enabled in your device’s Settings for this to work since you’re about to install an app outside of the Play Store.

That’s it! The app should now be installed and fully functional on the second device, no Internet connection required.

If you’ve transferred a premium app that you’ve purchased, the second device will only get to use the free version, if there is one available. As a result, you can easily transfer apps between Android devices via Bluetooth but don’t think of this as a method of getting a paid app for free.

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